Arts are there to entertain people and represent various situation affecting people. Different artists do their work related to a specific culture, political and social events happening in an environment or changing peoples lives while other people it's just for entertainment. Takashi Murakami is a Japanese contemporary artist born in 1962 and basis his works mostly in splendid artwork and business channel like trend. Additionally, he is known for darkening a line between costly and cheap artwork, and he went to Tokyo University of the Arts, and now he is the founder and president of Kaikai Kiki company. This paper seeks to discuss the materials and methods used by Takashi Murakami as well as history, themes, and context that he employs.
2. Materials and methods
Murakami uses various materials to develop his arts such as colors, incorporation of motifs like smiling flowers, skulls and usage of flat surfaces. He hence creates materials such as painting, animated film, sculpture. Besides, screen printing was the first technique he utilized after school to develop super flat which described high and low culture found in Japanese tradition (Murakami). However, his process of creating arts include, making a sketch and scanning it and tracing it as well as arranging it with a computer to make it a painting. Nevertheless, sometimes he sends his designs to his team who then prints the sketches on a large format in a high resolution where they print on wallpaper, a film for glass, and other materials (Artsper Magazine).
Moreover, Murakami uses a live model to paint his work, but his painting is inspired by movies which filled him with a desire to create pictures. Besides, he bases his work on current events in Japanese tradition and modern culture (Murakami and Hoaglund, 193). Further, Murakami works from scratch mostly in making of sketches of pictures Takashi sees or improvement of other works done by others. For instance, during an interview with Cobo editorial force, Mr. Murakami said he created the excuse paintings after a lot of pressure from gallerists thus he created the work which could sell and make financial sense (Artsper Magazine).
The impact of painting rather than using a photo is that the artist can demonstrate his ideas independently without being controlled by the photo colors or content. Furthermore, an original painting from scratch allows a chance to make corrections and base the sketch according to the theme the artist wants to portray. In other words, the use of photo limits the opportunities of exploring different options, and also painting allows uniqueness unlike picture (Murakami and Hoaglund, 193).
3. History, themes, and context
i. Maker
Mr. Murakami is a well-respected artist from Japan whom his work influences people, and he manages young artists, and his usage of super flat style helps maintain Japanese culture and society. Unfortunately, some people hate him for creating arts for money selling his work to galleries and museums (Artsper Magazine). Moreover, he was unsatisfied by the present artwork in Japan as he considered it very incorporative of western trends. Afterward, he came up with styles, medium, and strategies and got convinced by otaku culture which represented modern-day Japanese life. In summary, Mr. Murakami early works were based in the spirit of social criticism and satire which led to starting his pop icon known as Mr. DOB (Murakami).
Takashi Murakami is inspired by the works of Andy Warhol and other artists to write about the horrors of world war two since they had ignored it for the humiliation of the post-war occupation. He is also motivated by his urge to help youth artists as well as the willingness to merge art with e-commerce which is part of his job and source of income (Murakami).
ii. History and culture
Takashi Murakami works on Japanese cultural tradition and uses styles such as pop art, abstract like the 6 level of understanding, modern and contemporary style (Artsper Magazine). However, according to Israel, other artists deal in painting and sculptures, and their method differs with that of Takashi Murakami. For example, Kehinde Willey painting about Napoleon leading the Army, Tauba Auerbach, untitled painting in 2012 which was in the fourth dimension and Kara Walker Subtlety sculpture in 2014 (Israel).
The work of Willey even though it uses modern style it combines both American and African arts, but for Takashi, it’s just about Japanese culture. Auerbach, however, uses an abstract form where the author is confused deciding whether the dimensions are 2D or 3D (Murakami). More so, Takashi was influenced by the activities of the atomic bomb, traumatisms, and earthquakes that affected Japan thus he involved them in his work like acrylic on canvas painting (Artsper Magazine).
iii. Patronage, purpose, and theme
Murakami has a specific agenda which he shows with his work, i.e., improving and maintaining Japanese culture. For example, after realizing how western culture had dominated in the Japanese arts, he started working on otaku culture representing his country’s modern-day life like Mr. DOB icon (Murakami and Hoaglund, 193). His work can be seen by everyone who visits museums and those invited in exhibitions arranged by the artist or other private organizations. For example, in September 2010, the artist was able to fill 15 rooms in the park and palace of Versailles in France with his paintings and sculptures like the flower ball (Artsper Magazine).
There is cultural and religious symbolism in Murakami work as he utilizes old masters of painting and Buddhist iconography as well as drawing on the cultural history of Japan. Besides, he uses styles of heroes, humans, and environment, industry, conflict, and adversity, e.g., the issue of fashion in commercial media is a form of industry theme (Israel). Other artists who use similar ideas to Takashi include Kara Walker; Subtlety shows a conflict between African and American woman as the use of black and white signified the racial difference. Furthermore, Kehinde Wiley work of Napoleon leading the Army portrays a hero's theme and the Vik Muniz, Marat painting shows a subject of human and environment where the most massive garbage was leading to deaths of humans (Israel).
4. Conclusion
Takashi Murakami is a great artist who has contributed a lot to pop art and modern art in Japanese culture. Moreover, he utilizes the industry, human and environment and therefore his work has a significant influence on the people and his company helps manage young artists. Finally, some of his works were influenced by the current events happening in, e.g., earthquake.
Works Cited
Artsper Magazine. "10 Facts You Should Know about Takashi Murakami,” 2018, https://blog.artsper.com/en/a-closer-look/10-facts-know-takashi-murakami/
Israel, M. “These 10 Artworks Tell the Story of Contemporary Art”, 2017, https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-10-artworks-story-contemporary-art
Murakami, Takashi, Chiaki Kasahara, and Reiko Tomii, eds. Little boy: the arts of Japan's exploding subculture. New York: Japan Society, 2005.
Murakami, Takashi. "A theory of super flat Japanese art." Supa Furatto= Super Flat, Tokyo, Madora Shuppan (2000).
Takashi, Murakami, and Linda Hoaglund. "Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture." New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press 119 (2005): 193.
